Observations focused on the problems of an underdeveloped country, Venezuela, with some serendipity about the world (orchids, techs, science, investments, politics) at large. A famous Venezuelan, Juan Pablo Perez Alfonzo, referred to oil as the devil's excrement. For countries, easy wealth appears indeed to be the sure path to failure. Venezuela might be a clear example of that.

They cry out fraud in the election of the “queen” of the Electoral Board (CNE).

The Electoral National Council (CNE) has been shaken again by charges of electoral fraud, but this time it does not have anything to do with politics:they are aimed against the selection of its own beauty queen.While the charges by the political opposition of the country against the decision of the CNE to give the victory to President Hugo Chavez in the recall referendum vote on his mandate have yet to be silencec, employees of the institution protested against a supposed manipulation in the election of the most beautiful employee of the CNE, Reuters informed.

According to witnesses, last Wednesday the CNE workers rejected with shouts the selection in an internal beauty contest, of an employee of the press department.In the surveys prior to the election, the girl who was winning was not among the favorites.“Everybody was surprised ‘”, said to Reuters a civilian employee of the CNE, that requested not to be identified.“Perhaps the men thought that she was not the most beautiful; people in the back shouted “fraud” and they left the hall “, he added.

Witnesses assured us that the president of the CNE, lawyer Francisco Carrasquero, was one of the five members of the jury of the contest in which 17 candidates participated.The suspicions and outraged accusations of the employees reminded everyone of the charges by the political opposition that, in spite of not exhibiting concrete proofs and against the opinion of international observers, assures everyone that the CNE altered the results of presidential recall referendum of August15th. in order to grant Chávez the triumph that ratified him in his position until 2007.

The Democratic Coordinator (CD) charges that the CNE is dominated by those in favor of the government of Chávez, and says that they have manipulated the voting system to yield the victory to him.

The CNE is celebrating this week the anniversary of the designation of their authorities in the 2003 by the Supreme Court of Justice.The election of the “queen” was part of those celebrations, in a country that takes very seriously its beauty contests and that has managed to obtain more international crowns of beauty that any other nation in the globe.It was not clear if the CNE will keep the result or if it accepted the demand by some employees who demanded a revision of the election.

They cry out fraud in the election of the “queen” of the Electoral Board (CNE).

The Electoral National Council (CNE) has been shaken again by charges of electoral fraud, but this time it does not have anything to do with politics:they are aimed against the selection of its own beauty queen.While the charges by the political opposition of the country against the decision of the CNE to give the victory to President Hugo Chavez in the recall referendum vote on his mandate have yet to be silencec, employees of the institution protested against a supposed manipulation in the election of the most beautiful employee of the CNE, Reuters informed.

According to witnesses, last Wednesday the CNE workers rejected with shouts the selection in an internal beauty contest, of an employee of the press department.In the surveys prior to the election, the girl who was winning was not among the favorites.“Everybody was surprised ‘”, said to Reuters a civilian employee of the CNE, that requested not to be identified.“Perhaps the men thought that she was not the most beautiful; people in the back shouted “fraud” and they left the hall “, he added.

Witnesses assured us that the president of the CNE, lawyer Francisco Carrasquero, was one of the five members of the jury of the contest in which 17 candidates participated.The suspicions and outraged accusations of the employees reminded everyone of the charges by the political opposition that, in spite of not exhibiting concrete proofs and against the opinion of international observers, assures everyone that the CNE altered the results of presidential recall referendum of August15th. in order to grant Chávez the triumph that ratified him in his position until 2007.

The Democratic Coordinator (CD) charges that the CNE is dominated by those in favor of the government of Chávez, and says that they have manipulated the voting system to yield the victory to him.

The CNE is celebrating this week the anniversary of the designation of their authorities in the 2003 by the Supreme Court of Justice.The election of the “queen” was part of those celebrations, in a country that takes very seriously its beauty contests and that has managed to obtain more international crowns of beauty that any other nation in the globe.It was not clear if the CNE will keep the result or if it accepted the demand by some employees who demanded a revision of the election.

The Government confirmed today that it was launching a new Government owned Telecommunications Company financed by CVG and Edelca. The company will offer residential local, national and international telephone service as well as Internet services.

This is great news for CANTV. In the days prior to the recall vote the Government accused CANTV of conspiring against the recall vote and that it will nationalize it if necessary. Vice-President Rangel even said that the privatization of the company should be reversed, because this was a strategic sector for the Government. With the start of this company, the Government will have no more reason to use this argument and CANTV should be safe for the time being.

Moreover, CANTV’s business should also be safe. CANTV is a fairly efficient company at this time, with mobile and Internet being the growth drivers. We doubt the Government will devote the resources required to provide adequate Internet service, while residential service is regulated and not the best business in the sector. Curiously, the company will not go into the wireless business, the growth engine of CANTV. Talk about a dumb business plan! If on top of that the new telephone company is run as inefficiently as the Government, we suspect the new company will only survive in an environment of high oil prices, if at all.

This is truly a misguided idea, the Government should use resources to provide basic necessities and services to people, and this is not one of them anymore. When CANTV was partially privatized in 1990, it would take three or four times to even get a dial tone, public phones did not work, it would take up to five years to get a line and the company was a great source of corruption. What could be done differently this time given the badly managed Government we have? How much does the Government have to invest even to begin competing with CANTV and the other private telcos? Where will they get the talent to run it? What possible competitive advantage will they have?

To top it all off, the telecom sector has been opened to competition since 2001 and curiously the one that ahs attracted the least attention ahs been residential service, while there are some struggling companies competing in data and long distance. There are five cellp hone providers. This is about a silly an idea as I have heard from this Government. It will become another wasteful sink for funds and a new source of corruption, I am sure many are already lobbying to be named as Presidents of this company or to its Board of Directors.

The Government confirmed today that it was launching a new Government owned Telecommunications Company financed by CVG and Edelca. The company will offer residential local, national and international telephone service as well as Internet services.

This is great news for CANTV. In the days prior to the recall vote the Government accused CANTV of conspiring against the recall vote and that it will nationalize it if necessary. Vice-President Rangel even said that the privatization of the company should be reversed, because this was a strategic sector for the Government. With the start of this company, the Government will have no more reason to use this argument and CANTV should be safe for the time being.

Moreover, CANTV’s business should also be safe. CANTV is a fairly efficient company at this time, with mobile and Internet being the growth drivers. We doubt the Government will devote the resources required to provide adequate Internet service, while residential service is regulated and not the best business in the sector. Curiously, the company will not go into the wireless business, the growth engine of CANTV. Talk about a dumb business plan! If on top of that the new telephone company is run as inefficiently as the Government, we suspect the new company will only survive in an environment of high oil prices, if at all.

This is truly a misguided idea, the Government should use resources to provide basic necessities and services to people, and this is not one of them anymore. When CANTV was partially privatized in 1990, it would take three or four times to even get a dial tone, public phones did not work, it would take up to five years to get a line and the company was a great source of corruption. What could be done differently this time given the badly managed Government we have? How much does the Government have to invest even to begin competing with CANTV and the other private telcos? Where will they get the talent to run it? What possible competitive advantage will they have?

To top it all off, the telecom sector has been opened to competition since 2001 and curiously the one that ahs attracted the least attention ahs been residential service, while there are some struggling companies competing in data and long distance. There are five cellp hone providers. This is about a silly an idea as I have heard from this Government. It will become another wasteful sink for funds and a new source of corruption, I am sure many are already lobbying to be named as Presidents of this company or to its Board of Directors.

While it is difficult to “prove” there was fraud in the recent recall vote, the team studying the Electoral Registry has detected quite a few anomalies that should be of concern as they seem to be quite implausible from any perspective. There can be few explanations to any of the following numbers, more so when you consider that the census population includes all inhabitants in these towns from babies to the elderly. The first column shows the census populations of those towns in 2001, then the populations of the same towns according to INE (Instituto Nacional de Estadistica), finally it shows the number of people registered to vote in those towns. In some cases it is more than the ENTIRE population of the towns!:

2001 Census 2004 INE Registered Voters Percentage

Amazonas State

Maroa 1,731 1,821 2,112 118%

Rio Negro 2,348 2,515 1,960 81%

Anzoategui State

Libertad 13,980 14,301 12.088 80%

Aragua State

Santos Michelena 39,371 41,941 63,518 153%

Ocumare de la Costa 8,418 9,016 7,449 84%

Falcon State

Sucre 5,400 5,243 5,164 90%

Tocopero 4,688 4,971 4,654 93%

Monagas State

Acosta 17,568 17,973 22,490 118%

Aguasay 10,786 11,988 9,452 80%

A total of 100 towns were found to have problems like those above. You be the judge.